The apartment I am staying in is really lovely and I am given a large room with a comfy double bed and a balcony. The boys I am staying with are friendly and keep the apartment very tidy. They seem much more mature than most Italian men I have met to date and speak pretty good English. They constantly have a stream of friends in the apartment which is nice because I get to meet more locals, though many do not speak English well so most of the conversations end up in Italian and I am left listening to a beautiful stream of words that I do not understand. I pick up familiar words and phrases here and there but that's it. They do make an effort to speak English and include me in the conversation but its tough. Massimo's girlfriend is from Germany, and although she speaks fluent Italian, she also speaks English very well and so I connect with her immediately, she is very sweet, and we laugh when she mistakenly reverts to either Italian or German when she is speaking to me. The guys host dinners and drinks almost nightly with their friends so it seems like there is always something going on, and the food is always delicious. In fact, I do quite a bit of my own shopping and cooking while in Salerno. All the food is so fresh that it hardly matters how I prepare it, I can't really go wrong!
I get a lot of good writing done on my Pompeii novel, but I also get a great start on a second novel when inspiration just hits. This one is not a work of historical fiction, so I feel like I can get it finished much more quickly. It would be great to get something published maybe next year. When I'm not writing I am exploring the city with its fresh food markets and long coast of beaches. I take one trip back to Pompeii, climb Vesuvius, visit the ruins of Herculaneum and of Paestum, and take a bus ride to Amalfi Town and Positano. Massimo even invites me to join him and his friends on a hike from Ravello, a beautiful mountain town, down to Amalfi beach.
I had a really wonderful time staying in Salerno, and I can't thank Massimo and Savi enough for their hospitality.
I will be posting some pictures from my excursions in separate posts, so stay tuned :)